The Barbwire Blog has a great following over the years, and this year we have put this site on the map. Last year, we handed out our Barbwire Blog Awards for the first time, with awards like The Ric Flair Award for Best Male Wrestler (WWE, TNA, ROH), The BJ Whitmer Award for Best Male Wrestler (Indies), The Fabulous Moolah/Trish Stratus Award for Best Female Wrestler (WWE, TNA, ROH), The Allison Danger Award for Best Female Wrestler (Indies), The Bobby Heenan Award for Best Manager (WWE, TNA, ROH), The Percy Pringle III Award for Best Manager (Indies), The Jim Ross Award for Best Announcer, The Road Warriors Award for Best Tag Team (WWE, TNA, ROH), The Wild Samoans Award for Best Tag Team (Indies), The Mike Mooneyham Award for Best Journalist (Print, Media), The Richard Belding Award for Best Executive and the Lou Thesz Award for Lifetime Achievement).

This year we were supposed to be handing out the Brian Reese Memorial Award for Best Independent Women’s Wrestler of the year chosen by a fair and impartial committee. As many of you know, Mr. Reese was an avid supporter of women’s wrestling and one of the best photographers in the business. He was also the founder of the Yahoo group OndyDivas, which I was a member of. It was a great forum for women’s wrestling fans to air their grievances or show their support for the women’s side of the sport. After he passed away, we have posthumously inducted Mr. Reese into the Barbwire Blog Hall Of Fame for his contributions to women’s wrestling. This award was not only a chance to honor the best women athletes in independent wrestling, it was a great way to honor the memory of Mr. Reese.

Ladies and gentlemen, due to reasons that are too difficult to fully explain, The Brian Reese Memorial Award will not be awarded this year due to some differences beyond our control. I planned to honor Mr. Reese by naming an award in his honor, but someone was making several suggestions, like adding a committee, etc. I agreed to his suggestion and even I named Ms. Malia Hosaka as a member of the committee. But there was one problem, I put her there without permission, so I removed her so that we can get her permission so I can get an honest vote. This individual who shall remain nameless slandered my good name by calling me names like scumbag and asshole, and a piece of slime. This individual went on to spam on this site with comments saying that I was corrupt and dishonoring Mr. Resse’s memory, even though I am trying to honor him right. Although I respect Mr. Reese, I do not respect the views made by this individual because of the confusion he caused and the name calling he unleashed. It was unprofessional how he said it and that is not tolerated in our society. I apologize to the entire Reese family for this because naming an award after him was a way to honor Brian, not tarnish it.

Due to the problems this individual had created, I will officially rename the award The Mildred Burke Memorial Award, named after one of the great pioneers of women’s wrestling. I do have to line up a great committee for this award. And these people are not fools in this industry. They are the following: